The US has condemned 'unacceptable' violence in Odessa, urging both Ukraine and Russia to restore order.
More than 30 people have died in a 'criminal' building blaze in Ukraine's southern city of Odessa.
The OSCE team captured by pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine has been freed.
Pro-Russian activists attack policemen guarding the burned trade union building in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa yesterday. Source: AFP
A firefighter puts off burning rubbish outside the burned trade union building. Source: AP
Pro-Russian protesters gather to honour the memory of those killed during fighting with pro-Ukrainian activists in Odessa on Friday. Source: AP
A portrait of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin is set into a barricade in the centre of Slovyansk. Source: AP
A woman lays flowers and candles outside the burned trade union building in homage to the people who died. Source: AFP
Barack Obama and Angela Merkel said they would impose “severe sanctions” on Russia. Source: AFP
UKRAINE’S interim president last night declared two days of mourning after more than 50 people died in the country’s bloodiest day in months.
“The day of May 2 was a tragic day for Ukraine. I have signed a decree for two days of mourning in Ukraine for the heroes who died in the course of the anti-terrorist operation and also for those who died in the tragic events in Odessa,” Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said in a statement.
At least nine people, including four servicemen, died in fighting on Friday as the Ukrainian army intensified what Kiev calls an “anti-terrorist” operation around the rebel-held town of Slavyansk.
And at least 42 people lost their lives in the southern port city of Odessa after fighting between pro-Russian and pro-Kiev militants climaxed in an inferno that trapped dozens as both side hurled petrol bombs.
The Kremlin and Ukraine traded accusations over the violence, with Kiev saying the Odessa violence had been “co-ordinated by sabotage groups from Russia”.
Moscow said it was “outraged” as the scenic port city became a new front in an escalating months-long crisis that has sparked fears of a Russian invasion.
The foreign ministry in Moscow called on Ukraine and its “Western backers to end the anarchy and take responsibility before the Ukrainian people”, blaming Kiev’s “criminal irresponsibility” for the sinister turn of events.
Local media in the city of Odessa reported that pro-Russian militants were believed to have been in a burning building at the time.
Most of those who were killed died from smoke inhalation, while others perished trying to escape by jumping out of windows.
The European Union early today urged “utmost restraint” in the Ukraine conflict.
“The EU urges everyone to exercise utmost restraint and not to exploit this tragedy (in Odessa) to fuel more hatred, division and senseless violence,” EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said.
Ms Ashton also called for an “independent investigation” into the fire.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had asked his US counterpart John Kerry to press Ukraine to halt its military operation in the east of the ex-Soviet country, his ministry said.
“The minister called on the United States to use all of its influence to force the Kiev regime, which it looks out after and which has declared a war against its own people, to immediately halt military operations in the southeast, pull back its troops and free protesters,” the foreign ministry said.
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe has deployed scores of monitors across Ukraine to observer the effects of an April 17 Geneva peace deal that the rebels ended up ignoring.
Mr Lavrov, who also spoke with his Swiss counterpart and current OSCE chairman Didier Burkhalter, had pushed for a greater OSCE role in mediating the crisis in Ukraine, the ministry said.
“Sergei Lavrov strongly called for the use of the OSCE potential to influence Kiev with a view to cancelling a military operation against the population of Ukraine’s south-eastern regions,” the ministry said in another statement.
“Lavrov stressed that a reprisal operation in the southeast of Ukraine is pushing the country towards a fratricidal conflict,” the ministry said after the top diplomat’s talks with Kerry.
Hailing the release last night of OSCE observers by pro-Russian rebels in Slavyansk, Mr Kerry said: “It’s a step. But there are many other steps that have to be taken in order to be able to de-escalate the situation.”
The captured military inspectors were not part of that main mission, but of a smaller annex mission to verify the military situation on the ground. All OSCE members — including Russia — approved of their deployment under a Vienna treaty.
In his phone call with Mr Lavrov, Mr Kerry said he reiterated “that it is important for Russia to withdraw support for the separatists and to assist in removing people from the buildings and beginning to de-escalate the situation”.
He also warned that “if those supported by Russia continue to interfere with the election, regrettably there will have to be different sanctions including the possibility or the reality of sector sanctions”, referring to the Ukrainian presidential poll set for May 25.
“But Foreign Minister Lavrov and I did talk about how to proceed and perhaps how to find a way forward here. We both will be in touch.”
The head of an OSCE team released by rebels in east Ukraine last night expressed his “deep relief” after an ordeal that lasted more than a week.
“It is happiness, a deep relief,” German Colonel Axel Schneider told a small group of journalists on the road outside of the Ukrainian city of Donetsk.
He and the rest of the freed members of the OSCE team were on their way to Donetsk, where they were to take a plane sent from Germany to fly them back to Berlin, where diplomats from their respective countries were waiting.
The group, all men, consisted of seven Europeans — four Germans including Schneider, one Pole, one Dane and one Czech — as well as five Ukrainian military officers who had been accompanying them.
They were seized by pro-Russian rebels on April 25 and kept in Slavyansk, where the insurgents at one point made them give a news conference under armed guard. One inspector, a Swede, was released April 27 because he suffered from diabetes.
The rebels had insisted that the prisoners — whom they called “guests” — would only be exchanged for militants taken prisoner by Ukrainian authorities.
In the end, after days of outrage from Western capitals over their captivity, direct intervention from a Kremlin envoy, Vladimir Lukin, resulted in their liberation.
“Finally, with the co-operation of all the key players, it went perfectly,” Colonel Schneider said.
President Barack Obama has threatened to impose punitive sanctions on the Russian economy if Moscow continued to participate in the unrest ahead of the May 25 presidential elections in the former Soviet republic.
“If in fact we see the disruptions and the destabilisation continuing so severely that it impedes elections on May 25, we will not have a choice but to move forward with additional... severe sanctions,” said Mr Obama at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“If Russia continues on its current course, we have a range of tools at our disposal, including sanctions that would target certain sectors of the Russian economy.”
Previously, the administration had said such measures would only come into force if Russia sent its estimated 40,000 troops over the border.
The unrest in Ukraine started with peaceful demonstrations in Kiev in November against then-president Viktor Yanukovych, but has rapidly degenerated into a full-blown global crisis.
After a deadly crackdown on protesters, Mr Yanukovych was forced out and replaced with the Western-backed administration. That sparked fury in Moscow, which responded with a blitz annexation of Crimea.
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